Arch Linux

Tom B

Member

Registered: 2014-01-15

Posts: 187

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[Pulse] HDMI Audio device changes when HDMI device is turned off

I'm using an arch box as a HTPC, it's connected to a sound bar via HDMI.

It works fine, but every time the sound bar (and TV) is turned off, pulse resets the audio device to "Analog Stereo Output" from "Digital Stereo Surround 7.1 (HDMI 2) Output". Every time I turn the sound bar back on, I have to go into system settings and select the correct audio device.

The machine is an Intel i7 8650u using the Intel HDMI out running KDE.

I believe it's a pulse issue, I'm guessing when the sound bar is turned off, it sees it as being disconnected and selects the next available audio device. Is there any way to either stop this behaviour entirely or have it detect the sound bar being turned back on (reconnected) and re-select it as an output device?

Last edited by Tom B (2018-12-13 15:44:39)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,659

Re: [Pulse] HDMI Audio device changes when HDMI device is turned off

For automatic switching you might want to add

load-module module-switch-on-connect

before the if...udev-detect block in your /etc/pulse/default.pa (though afaik on intel hdmi's it is usually implemented via a different port as opposed to a different sink and thus should already be covered by the module-switch-on-port-available which should be loaded by default)

FWIW to prevent this entirely, comment/remove aforementioned load-module module-switch-on-port-available from /etc/pulse/default.pa as well as load-module module-stream-rescue and append load-module module-stream-restore with relevant options like on_rescue=0